Sunday, November 1, 2009

Today is our 3rd day in Washington D.C and we are missing you guys! We love talking to you on the phone and know that your babysitters are taking good care of you. Here are some more updates on all the fun sites we are seeing while we're away:

On our way to the Smithsonian Museums we walked through this beautiful courtyard in the Environmental Protection Agency.

We went to the Smithsonian Museum of American History and found all kinds of cool stuff there!

This one is for (guess who) JACKSON! Jackson boy, we saw a big train just for you!Julia Child's TV Kitchen now lives in this museum.For all you Dan Brown fans out there - this statue was discussed in his his latest book The Lost Symbol. It was originally planned to be displayed in the capital building, but the people did not like that this George Washington statue was bare chested and he was moved out. He now lives in the American History Museum.The Star Spangled Banner exhibit was so moving. This new modern American flag sculpture is above the entrance to where the real flag is displayed. Isn't it so sparkly and beautiful?!We were not allowed to take pictures with a camera inside the exhibit, but we did get some video footage. In we go!

Here is the original sheet music written by Frances Scott Key - it had real pencil marks and scribbled notes.My favorite display of the day had to be the gowns of the first ladies. There were so many fancy dresses, shoes, and accessories to see! It was quite a hit with all the female museum visitors. We were all completely drawn in by the sparkles and fancy clothes!Jeremy liked pretending to be the President of the United States for a few minutes:

Lizzie, these ballet slippers (that belonged to Chelsea Clinton)...

and Dorothy's Ruby Red Slippers are just for you! Every girl loves the pretty shoes!Trevor and Logan check this out: guess who we saw on our way out of the museum?! C3PO! The real costume that was worn in the 6th Star Wars movie (Return of the Jedi) was there to say goodbye to us before we left! That's daddy doing his robot face.After the museum, we made our way over to the National Archives. Are those the tallest doors you've ever seen in your life?! They're as tall as our house!Here's mommy waiting on the steps getting ready to go inside.

Here's a picture of the Declaration of Independence. (Remember the movie National Treasure? This is the document they stole from the National Archives in that movie!) John Hancock signed his name really big at the bottom of this page. See if grandma can point out his signature to you.And here's our Constitution. Can you read the first three most famous words? "We the People..."

There is a good story behind this next picture... This picture was taken today, by daddy, in the National Archives. It is the final page of the Constitution where all the signatures are. Now, remember, in this museum, there is absolutely no flash photography allowed. No flash photography at all. There are signs everywhere that say "no flash photography". The light from the flash is not good for these old old pages. There are even guards posted right next to the documents to prevent people from taking flash pictures.

Well, guess what happened... the flash in our camera was not turned off when daddy went to take the picture. He snapped the shutter and *FLASH*! He took a picture! Right in front of the guards. It was a complete accident. The guard was just as shocked as we were and immediately/sternly said, "Put the camera away, sir." We put that camera away and shimmied our way on out the door.

Now we're on our way to our final destination:

Our last stop of the day took us to the Washington Monument. We rode up an elevator for 70 seconds all the way up to 555 feet!

Here are some of the views from the tippy top of the Washington Monument:

Looking out the window facing East we could see the Capitol Building

Facing West we saw the Pentagon......and the Lincoln Memorial (can you see the tiny white house looking thing out the window just above Daddy's arm?)Facing South we could see the Jefferson MemorialLooking out North we could see the National Christmas Tree!And the White House!

We headed outside for some final pictures before heading back to the hotel.

Hi Jennifer...Thanks for the wonderful tour. What fantastic pictures!!You do good work!!I feel like I am there with you. Just wanted to let you know about the Giveaway (going on until Nov. 7th)An Italian Stone w/Vinyl..sentiment..about Family, Home & Blessings..Good Luck if you choose to enter...Barb